Record High Solar Production: Record Low Skilled Labour. With current trends, global solar installations could top 13.6 gigawatts (GW) by the end of this year - nearly double what it was in 2009 (7.3 GW) - but labour shortages could hold this back.

Get involved in a NABCEP training program and talk to local companies. It's a lot of hours for the certification but you can usually get a job if you've started these programs. Good solar installers are harder to find than you would think.

I sold some property last year to install solar thermal on my house in Austria. Now the first winter is over, it was even a little harder one, and we saved for sure 1/3 of wood-burning, if not a bit more. But since wood is very cheap here, the amortization will take about 17 years; calculated to gas, our former source, it would have been <8 years. Our electricity in our department of Austria is covered 100% by wind (private households only until now, but the final stage has not been reached yet).

With all due respect we are talking about different things. Solar heating for the house in my opinion is close to being economical (or in case of China already quite economical) ( and I agreed about it with you on different thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/c3x1k/new_york_unveils_plan_for_26bn_solar_heating/c0q1d3l ) . Solar for electricity generation is very far from being self sustaining economically. Again I seriously doubt that electricity in your department in Austria is 100% wind. You are taking advantage of the fossil plants when the wind is not blowing and this dependence is not going away.

It has yet been always, don't interpret "solar" too narrow. Fossile fuels are also basically only solar energy. And the sun has built up the whole biosphere, it will always dominate the climate (which doesn't mean, we don't play a major role, but global warming needs the sun as energy source as well). Our only challenge is, to transform and store this energy for our civilization's needs. Don't forget, that wind also is based on the sun, and that tidal and geothermal energy can be harvested cheaply in some locations, because on certain spots more of that energy form even is available than sun (typical example: Island in wintertime).